The four stroke internal combustion engine has changed little since its inception over one hundred years ago. For an engine to produce power it needs to breath. The more air that can pump with the proper amount of fuel, the greater the specific output. The quest for air flow is not a singular pursuit by the performance industry but is also shared by the government and auto manufacturers. The continual strive for fuel efficiency has brought about introduction of smaller displacement engines in lighter weight automobiles. One reason for Japan gaining great market shares of U.S. automobiles was that they had already produced smaller cars with smaller efficient engines. However, all of the down-sized automobiles still lack an improved power and acceleration. To satisfy this complaint, manufacturers used several methods to increase output while still meeting federal government meditated mileage levels. Improved methods include performance enhancing technologies through the use of larger valves, higher compression ratios, higher RPMs, more valves per cylinder, super charging and turbo charging. These efforts were mainly to improve the efficiency of the engine, its off gasses reducing the pollution of same while increasing miles per gallon of gasoline through increased airflow and exhaust flow of the engine. However, when trying to change certain design functions such as airflow through valve numbers, increasing RPMS and the like, a gain in one technological area is usually offset by restriction in another. If a cylinder head can be diminished to poor flowing status by the insulation of a low capacity intake manifold, an intake that is too large will not work with a restricted cylinder head.
It is accepted the current valve designs present the largest offender in the quest for airflow and the internal combustion four stroke engine. Poppet valve, a tulip shaped device has been used in some form or other since the first engines to the latest design models out of Detroit. It's reciprocating motion has been the standard barrier of airflow until now. In addition, airflow has been approached by various engineers through replacements of the reciprocating valve or poppet valve. One idea has been a rotating motion of a port opening in a sphere to operate the valve which reduces friction. Such an arrangement would have the valve share the same motion as a crank shaft, eliminating all of the up and down of the poppet valve.
Emissions from vehicles is an ever increasing problem for today's engine and requires design features and new breathing features which reduce same. The most efficient method to reduce emissions is to produce the production of same. In this regard, electrical vehicles may eventually prove successful, but as of now technical problems remain and these electrical vehicles will likely be costly to produce. However, reduction of emissions produced by current internal combustion engines is most effectively done by burning less fuel under controlled conditions which in turn increases efficiency of the fuel burn. As conventional poppet engines are reaching the limits of development, a change in the airflow mechanism for the internal combustion engine is the answer. While in some performance gains can be recaptured through reduced vehicle weight and other technical improvements, it is expected that the resultant vehicle will not match current performance levels and be more costly to produce. These tradeoffs create a dilemma for the automobile manufacture. The public demand for clean air on one hand must be balanced against individual consumer demands for high performance and low cost while meeting EPA standards. Several attempts over the years have been made in redesigning and increasing air flow and exhaust flow in the internal combustion engine by avoiding tulip valves. These replacement valves are rotary valves are spherical valves with apertures therethrough for intake and exhaust purposes. However, the main problem which has not been solved is to how to seal a valve when it is closed. A spinning valve or rotating valve avoids many of the design weaknesses of the poppet valve. Spherical assembly that rotates in a timed sequence to the exposed intake in the exhaust ports have been brought forth which afford in a calculated percentage gain in fuel efficiency alone with corresponding increases in power while eliminating the can shaft and its auxiliary mechanisms. The deficiencies of the poppet valve need to be replaced. By design, the necessary use of a cam shaft to open and close a poppet valve requires that the clearance between the cam, tappet, and valve must be taken up slowly and the valve lifted slowly at first to avoid unacceptable levels of noise and wear. The valve cannot be closed abruptly or it will be bounce on its seat. Other problems are represented by the slow response time when measured in degrees of the crank shaft arc of a rotation creates losses, since the intake valve is not opened far enough to take full advantage of the low pressure created in the bore as the pistons travels downward towards the bottom dead center. To compensate for this, it is customary to open the intake valve prior to the piston reaching top dead center from the beginning of the intake stroke. Exhaust port concerns are aided by the high pressure in relating to the exhaust manifold during blow down and share the same obstacles, requiring earlier opening and late closing with a period of overlap when both valves are open. The poppet valve is a great liability to the engine beyond its flow limitations. The energy that is used to expand against the piston and turn the crank shaft is wasted during overlap and prerequisite time required to open the valve prematurely and delay their closing. The power consumed internally by an engine accounts for frictional losses, and the poppet valve train is a major offender. Additional internal friction is created by the water and oil pumps along with the crank shafts traveling through the oil pan. The friction is usually established by measuring dinotesting where the engine is run by a large electric motor without any combustion, measuring the power required to turn same. The first internal combustion engine was approximately twenty percent or less thermally efficient, with the best designs today approaching only twenty four percent. This means that 76% of the energy from the fuel consumed is going either out the tailpipe or into the cooling system and is being wasted.
What is needed to meet the technical requirements of today's internal combustion engine ie. four stroke engines or diesel engines are the results of society and federal government demand for lower emission engines which is compact, lightweight and produces increased output per liter of fuel without increasing cost. A small displacement version internal combustion engine could match all current performance levels and allow any cost savings from that engine to offset cost increase incurred by other field conserving measures. The four stroke internal combustion engine must change to survive and society demands that it survive because of cost and accessibility. In order for the four stroke internal combustion to survive, one approach will be a radical change in its head and valve design, ie. reducing friction inefficiencies and opening the valve passage as is achievable with a rotating spherical head and valve the valve being a flat portion of the spherical head which achieves up to 30 or 40 percent or more of the volume of the current valve thus allowing greater intake of fresh air and exhausting a greater quantities of exhaust gas before the next combustion stroke.